Ukraine: Attacks on education threaten an entire generation, UNICEF warns

This article is published in association with United Nations.

In an underground classroom in Sumy, Ukraine, children sit quietly at their desks, busy with the day’s lessons. For the moment they are shielded from the horrors of nearly five years of war, but just barely.

It’s only 15 days into the new school year and already more than a thousand air raid alerts have sounded across the country, or more than 100 a day. 

“Nobody hears them louder and deeper than children,” said Ricardo Pires, Deputy Spokesperson with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), speaking from just outside the classroom door to journalists in Geneva. 

“An air-raid siren means a maths lesson stops halfway through. Children leave their desks for shelter. They wait for the all-clear. They return. They try to concentrate again and then the siren sounds.” 

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Education under attack 

Mr. Pires is sounding another type of alarm and this time for the international community. 

 “Nearly five years into the war in Ukraine, children’s right to education remains under attack, with consequences that will define an entire generation,” he warned. 

As the full-scale Russian invasion grinds on, Sumy, located in eastern Ukraine, is among the hardest hit regions this year alongside Mykolaiv and Odesa.  

One in two education facilities there has been damaged or destroyed in the fighting, but “across the country, the picture is just as stark.”  

The Ukrainian Government estimates that between January and August of this year, hundreds more educational institutions were damaged, bringing the overall toll since the war began to over 4,200.  

Learning losses, bleak futures 

As Mr. Pires noted, “the cost to children is measured beyond broken walls, psychological scars and loud sirens.”  

Educational assessments of 15-year-old Ukrainian students carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reveal that “a significant proportion” have not reached sufficient competency in subjects such as science, maths and reading. 

“This narrows their options for further study, skilled work, and full participation in society as adults,” he noted. 

Reading, writing and resilience 

“Despite the war, Ukraine has demonstrated incredible resilience in sustaining the education system as verified by the stability of results between 2022 and 2025,” he said. 

“However, as we continue to warn, children in Ukraine need peace to be able to learn properly.” 

In Sumy, UNICEF has helped to establish 22 shelters-turned-schools, such as the one where he was speaking from which can accommodate some 300 students. 

This month, nearly 4.2 million children across Ukraine – and more than 366,000 teachers – returned to school.  

Yet a significant number continue to depend on blended or fully online learning, while nearly half of all pre-school aged children are missing out on regular education and care. 

Winter threat and response 

Mr. Pires said the approaching winter also poses another threat to education, as attacks on infrastructure will disrupt electricity and heating supply. 

“Last year nearly two million children suffered in extreme winter conditions after being left without heat, electricity and water. Power cuts disrupted online lessons too, with the frontline areas like Sumy being hardest hit,” he said. 

This winter, UNICEF aims to reach three million people in Ukraine, including 540,000 children. 

The agency wants to ensure that 375,000 students can keep learning, including by repairing heating systems, providing back-up energy to schools, rehabilitating school shelters and supporting catch-up learning. 

“We are doing everything we can to keep children learning, but no amount of support can shield their education from the consequences of continued attacks,” he said.